Mead said that because of publishers’ “heroic efforts to manage down costs” after the dot-com bubble popped in 2001 and revenues plunged, the industry is in strong shape to prosper in the current environment.

The report found that in 2000, the peak of the business cycle, the average business publication generated $7.31 million in revenue. By 2004, that figure had fallen to $4.75 million. Meanwhile, the cost to market, publish and distribute the average publication was slashed from $5.35 million to $3.66 million.

Mead said that even as the Internet grows in importance as a revenue generator, print publications still play the key role of “community product” for business media companies, providing “a very solid foundation for relations in the industry and spinning off future products.”

Members of the audience also stressed the importance of print, with Peter Hoyt, president of Hoyt Publishing Co., declaring, “The demise of print is exaggerated.”

Robin Ashton, president of Gill Ashton Publishing and publisher of Foodservice Equipment Reports, waxed metaphorical. “The print product is basically an aircraft carrier you fly everything off of,” he said, adding, “There is no question that keeping the aircraft carrier fueled is a challenge nowadays.”